Tander pips SVG to secure Aus GT pole

Garth Tander continued his impressive pace to claim pole position in a hotly contested Australian GT Championship qualifying session at Phillip Island.

The V8 Supercars star produced a last gasp 1:26.8s effort to edge the McLaren 650S of Shane van Gisbergen to the top spot.

Driving the Steve McLaughlan owned Jamec Pem Racing Audi R8, Tander proved to be just 0.14s quicker than the Kiwi, who held the top spot for the majority of the session.

Times posted in Q2 eclipsed the pace set in the opening session as track conditions improved following an earlier rain shower.

Factory Audi driver Marco Bonanomi will head up the second row in the #5 GT Motorsport Audi he will share with Greg Taylor.

The Elliot Barbour/Nathan Antunes McLaren 650S completed the second row.

BMW enjoyed a much stronger showing courtesy of Steven Richards, who put the SRM M6 GT3 in fifth just ahead of the Supabarn Supermarkets Audi R8 of Marcus Marshall.

Scott Taylor Motorsport’s Craig Baird (Mercedes) pumped in a time to pip factory Audi DTM ace Miguel Molina in the #1 Audi R8 GT3 for seventh.

The Walkinshaw Racing Porsche driven by John Martin and Duvashen Padaychee was ninth, while Nathan Morcom rounded out the top 10 in his McLaren 650S.

MARC GT will start from 11th on the grid for its maiden GT3 race thanks to Bruno Spengler’s effort.

The top 13 runners were covered by a second.

Teams were forced to endure a brief delay before Q2 was given the green light due to a heavy shunt involving Mark Griffith at the end of Q1. Griffith’s Mercedes hit the wall hard at Turn 7.

The Australian GT Championship will return to action on Saturday with two 60 minute sprint races scheduled.

Speedcafe.com will broadcast both races from Phillip Island on Saturday.

Result: Australian GT Championship Qualifying 2

1	JAMEC PEM Racing	Garth Tander (Vic)	Audi R8 LMS	1:26.8933*
2	Darrell Lea	Shane Van Gisbergen	McLaren 650S GT3	1:27.0354	00.1421
3	GT Motorsport	Marco Bonanomi	Audi R8 LMS	1:27.1049	00.2116
4	Beechwood / SLR / Buildmap	Elliot Barbour	McLaren 650S GT3	1:27.1931	00.2998
5	SR Motorsport	Steve Richards (Vic)	BMW M6 GT3	1:27.3346	00.4413
6	Supabarn Supermarkets	Marcus Marshall	Audi R8 LMS	1:27.3718	00.4785
7	Scott Taylor Motorsport	Craig Baird (Qld)	Mercedes AMG SLS-GT3	1:27.4263	00.5330
8	JAMEC PEM Racing	Miguel Molina	Audi R8LMS	1:27.5099	00.6166
9	Walkinshaw GT3	Aaron Tebb	Porsche 911 GT3-R	1:27.5556	00.6623
10	DPO	Nathan Morcom (Qld)	McLaren 650S GT3	1:27.5950	00.7017
11	MARC GT	Bruno Spengler (SUI)	BMW AG M6 GT3	1:27.7408	00.8475
12	Darrell Lea	Daniel Gaunt	Aston Martin Vantage	1:27.8740	00.9807
13	Eggleston Motorsport	Dominic Storey	Mercedes AMG SLS-GT3	1:27.8812	00.9879
14	Taplin Real Estate	Dean Canto (SA)	Lamborghini Gallardo	1:28.0713	01.1780
15	Interlloy M Motorsport	Glen Wood (Vic)	Lamborghini R-EX	1:28.1726	01.2793
16	Modena Engineering	Ricky Capo (Vic)	BMW Z4 GT3	1:28.4509	01.5576
17	Maranello Motorsport	Graham Smythe (NZ)	Ferrari 458 GT3	1:28.6850	01.7917
18	Maranello Motorsport	Cameron McConville (Vic)	Ferrari 458 GT3	1:28.7632	01.8699
19	Maranello Motorsport	Peter Edwards (Vic)	Ferrari 488 GT3	1:29.3623	02.4690
20	AMAC Motorsport	Brad Shiels (NSW)	Porsche 997 GT-R	1:29.5247	02.6314
21	Maranello Motorsport	Jake Fouracre (Vic)	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	1:29.5571	02.6638
22	JBS Australia	Roger Lago (Qld)	Lamborghini R-EX	1:29.5928	02.6995
23	The Bend Motorsport	Yasser Shahin (SA)	Lamborghini Gallardo	1:29.6992	02.8059
24	Objective Racing	Tony Walls (Qld)	McLaren 6505 GT3	1:29.8093	02.9160
25	Miedecke Motor Group	George Miedecke (QLD)	Aston Martin Vantage	1:29.8456	02.9523
26	Fastway Couriers	Tim Miles (NSW)	Audi R8 Ultra	1:30.1942	03.3009
27	Bondi Wholefoods	Ash Samadi (Vic)	Mercedes AMG SLS-GT3	1:32.8499	05.9566
28	McLaren Melbourne	Matthew Kingsley (Qld)	McLaren 650s GT3	1:40.1711	13.2778